Supporting arrangement for transformer coils



SUPPORTING ARRANGEMENT FOR TRANSFORMER COILS Filed April 8, 1965 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 Feb. 8, 1966 J. R CURE T I 3,234,492

SUPPORTING ARRANGEMENT FOR TRANSFORMER COILS Filed April 8, 1963 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 Feb. 8, 1966 J. R. CURE ETAL 3,234,492 I SUPPORTING ARRANGEMENT FOR TRANSFORMER 0011.5

Filed April 8, 1963 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 I lllllllr 1 3,234,492 SUPPORTING ARRANGEMENT FOR TRANSFORMER COILS Filed April 8, 1963 Feb. 8, 1966 J. R. CURE ETAL 6 Sheets-Sheet 4.

SUPPORTING ARRANGEMENT FOR TRANSFORMER COILS Filed April 8. 1963 Feb. 8, 1966 .1. R. CURE ETAL 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 United States Patent M 3,234,492 SUPPORTING ARRANGEMENT FOR TRANSFORMER COILS John Raymond Cure, Stockport, and Walter Alan Hubbard, Tirnperley, England, assignors to Associated Electrical Industries Limited, London, England, a British company Filed Apr. 8, 1963, Ser. No. 271,365 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Apr. 19, 1962, 15,340/ 62 2 Claims. (Cl. 33665) This invention relates to transformers, and aims at providing an improved holder or structural arrangement for supporting, during transportation, also for positioning on duty, heavy transformer coils, this term signifying primary and secondary winding assemblies. The invention facilitates handling with the aid of cranes and transporting such units, also makes it possible to assemble for testing core and coil members of a transformer, separate them again, and reassemble them while maintaining the shape and insulation of the coil, to ensure for the reassembling a desired relationship between the coil and core members when these members have been moved separately, for instance to another work-shop or to a site of erection. This is of paramount importance where a transformer is of great size or weight, and cannot be moved bodily as a whole. Thus the present invention makes it possible to transport coils and cores, or core portions separately, for instance from a test station to a power station where the transformer has to operate on duty. If a outer surface of the coil and a means for detachably connecting said beam ends to said structure.

transformer is of'polyphase type, it may be necessary to The connecting means may be of a detachable kind.

The beam member can be suspended from the top of the framefor handling the coil, as by a crane, and can rest on leg members which have their foot ends welded to a base part of a tank, when such a tank houses the coil in operation on its site of duty. Temporary enclosures are provided for protecting the coil during transportation, while spacers or packing maintain the coil in the correct positional relationship with respect to a base part of the tank which is transported with the coil.

The invention also relates to the method of using thesupporting and positioning means.

More details will become apparent and the invention will be better understood from the following description three-phase shell-type transformers;

FIG. 6 shows the arrangement of FIG. 5 enclosed and tilted for transportation;

FIG. 7 shows three reassembled coil units for a three phase shell-type arrangement;

FIG. 8 is a section at right angles to the coil axis, through a three-phase transformer with a laminated shelltype core and with its permanent tank; and

3,234,492 Patented Feb. 8, 1966 FIG. 9 is a longitudinal view thereof showing the tank in section.

Referring to FIG. 1, three single phase coil units 1 comprise each primary and secondary transformer windings and their insulation. Two of the units are shown supported on a tank base member 2 with their supporting beam members A resting on a flange 11 of the base member 2. The beam members A extends through eye openings of the coils, which are rectangular in this case. The upper bar 4 and the lower bar 8 of the beam member A bear against the planar top and bottom walls of a rectangular eye in the coil. The upper bar 4 and the lower bar 8 of each beam member A are adjustably interconnected, such as by screw-threaded rods 5, so that the distance between the upper and lower bars of the beam member A is adjustable to fit accurately the vertical eye dimension of the coil. The third coil unit 1 is shown embraced by an outer frame structure 7, forming a detachable part of the holder by which the beam member A can be suspended from a crane hook, for handling, a head portion of the frame having to this end a lifting eye. The beam member A is connectible to the outer frame 7, as by bolts 7', and the coil unit is safeguarded by the frame 7 while it is handled and lowered into position, particularly into a phase-section of the tank base member 2 where it may rest, at least temporarily, on the frame 7 until the prop is removed to rest the beam on flange 11, as in FIG. 2. The frame 7 includes a plurality of upright members 7", the length of which being such to position the ends of the beam members A on a flange 11 when the upright members rest on the bottom Wall of the base member 2.

As shown in FIG. 2 the coil unit 1 is securely held as by wedges 3 in the tank base member 2. The rods 5 have their upper ends screwed into detachable slotted bosses 6 of the upper bar 4 to allow height adjustment thereof. The lower bar 8 of the beam member A may rest on flange portions 11 of the base member 2, the latter being shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 3 shows that after magnetic laminations have been stacked to form a core member 13, an intermediate portion 17 of the tank is secured as by flanges to the tank base member 2, and further wedges 3 are inserted to support laterally the coil unit against projections 17a extending here longitudinally along the side walls of the tank portion 17.

KG. 4 shows the three coil units 1 permanently accommodated for duty operation in a tank which comprises the base member 2, intermediate portion 17, and top or cover portion 22, connected by flanges to the intermediate portion 17. A casing 24 with a removable cover 25 is flanged to the right hand end of the tank to house, for instance, tap changing terminals 23.

FIG. 5 shows a beam member A which extends through the eye of the coil unit 1. An intermediate head member 27 carries the beam member A suspended from a top portion 28 of on outer frame structure 7 by rods 26. The core 13 is of shell-type and the yoke portions outside the coil unit are supported on brackets 18a, 18b welded to the frame upright members 7", which are preferably also welded to the tank base member 2. Wedges 16 are inserted between the core 13 and top of the coil eye. For transportation a temporary cover or shell 9 is secured with its flangeto the flange 11 of the transformer base 2 (FIG. 6). A sealing gasket 12 is used between the shell and tank base flanges. Spacer blocks 10 are inserted between the coil unit and the side walls of the shell 9 to position the coil securely against the shell. Then the whole may be tilted through as shown in FIG. 6, so that the greatest dimension is horizontal during transportation, such as between a testing station and an erection site.

As shown in FIG. 7 each phase of the three-phase shell- 3. type transformer has its own tank base member 2 to which it was secured for positioning. On the site, flange portions 15 of the tank bases are first accurately aligned by means of taper pins 14, then clamped and welded together to form permanent oil-tight junctions between the three tank base members 2. The frame upright members 7", also brackets 18a, 18b, are welded to the tank wall, and the portion of core 13 which surrounds the coil units is fixedly supported between the end brackets (FIGS. and 8 When the shell 9 has been removed, an intermediary portion 17 (FIG. 9) of the permanent tank is joined to the tank base 2 and a tank top or cover 22 is joined to the intermediary portion 17. A bushing 19 extending downwards from the top of the portion 22 into the tank, is indicated by dash-dot lines (FIG. 8).

FIG. 9 shows the three-phase shell transformer assembled in its permanent tank with jacks 21 between the tank wall and the coil ends.

More constructional details and a method of using the coil supporting arrangement will be seen from the followmg.

For transportation of coil 1 each phase suspended by the external or head member of its supporting arrangement is lowered into its separate tank base member 2 and is positioned by spacers 3 which pack the coil unit against the Walls of the tank base member 2. This base is constructed to withstand the axial short circuit forces of the coil during testing. While the coil is suspended from a crane the top bar .4 is inserted. The top of the frame construction is bolted into position to take the coil weight which is transferred to it through intermediary members comprising high tensile steel rods 26 (FIG. 5)

having ends screwed into bosses 6 which are welded to the bar 4. According to FIG. 5 the top 28 of the frame structure is supported on the four upright members 7" and the section ends are welded into the tank base 2. These upright members 7 serve as tank stiifeners and also as supports for the terminal gear, in addition to their main purpose of supporting the coil 1. A bottom bar 8 of the beam member A is placed into position to support core laminations 13 which are now stacked up.

The top I-section 28 of the frame is at this stage additionally supported by two auxiliary A-frarnes, which are not shown. Such auxiliary means serve to avoid distortion during the transportationof the coil to the sitewhere it has to be reassembled.

A temporary shell 9 (FIG. 6) of steel, is secured to the flange 11 of tank base member 2, using also a gasket 12, and coil 1 is nowpacked out to the shell or shipping cover 9'such as with wood blocks 10.

The tank base member 2 and shell 9 form a gas-tight enclosure which 'is filled with carbon dioxide to prevent the ingressof moisture during transportation. The position for transportation with the longest dimension horizontal is shown in FIG. 6.

At the site where the transformer has to be installed each tank base is jacked into an upright position on a plinth provided therefor (not shown). The shell 9 is removed from each separately transported phase coil, and a temporary cover, preferably of plastic material, now enclosesall the three phases of a three-phase transformer, If the coil insulation has not been oil impregnated before, the moisture can now be easily removed by heat and vacuum treatment on the site.

The auxiliary A-frames mentioned before are now removed-and the three coil arrangements for a three-phase transformer are jacked together using tapered locating pins'14 extending through flanges and rims 15 of the tank base member 2. The tank rims and flanges are then clamped up and welded externally, to form a solid threephase base. plate and tank-bottom. The coils are now supported in the individual tank base portions at the correctheight, and separately transported core laminations or stacks are built up to form the magnetic circuit, while the coils are in their permanent position on site.

After the core 13, a shell-type core in this case, has been thus completed wedges 16 are driven into the eye space above the core portions 1.301. Thus the weight of the coil 1 is supported by the core, and the beam members A of the supporting structure can be removed. Alternatively, the beam members A may be left in the transformer if the stray loss caused be negligible.

Then a middle section 17 which will be part of the permanent tank is lowered into place. It has a fiange which is bolted to the flange 11 of the base member 2. Then the core laminations are pressed together using clamp screws 18 and brackets 38 which are Welded to the middle section 17 (FIG. 8). At this stage a terminal gear indicated at 19 can be mounted. The three-phase coils 1 are then wedged by spacers 20 or otherwise supported by the tank walls against short circuit forces .in the coils. Tap changer means can be mounted before a top bell 22 is lowered to complete the permanent transformer tank. Terminal bushings 19 are mounted through entrance holes. The top bell can be fabricated in sections to avoid transport difficulties, and tie rods can be used to hold the bell sections together whereby to prevent shearing stress on welding seams between the sections 22 and 17.

When the transformer has been thus rebuilt the permanent tank is blanked off temporarily, for a drying-out procedure.

While preferred embodiments of the invention have been shown variations are possible'witllout departing from the invention as defined by the appended claims. The coils may form part of a core-type transformer, instead of a shell-type transformer, as shown. Core laminations can be assembled in'the eye of a coil to be transported to the site while held inside the coil. The axis of the coil when forming part of the transformer on duty :may be horizontal instead of vertical.

What we claim is:

1. In the combination ofa transformer coil having an open center portion and support means for said transformer coil, a tank having a base'member comprised of a bottom wall and side walls extending therefrom defining an opening, a laterally extending flange surrounding said opening, said coil being positioned in said tank, a beam member extending through said open center portion beyond the sides of said coil, said beam member comprising an upper bar, a lower bar, and adjustable members extending therebetween, a pair of upright members adja cent each'end of said beam member and having a lifting eye secured thereto, means releasably connecting said upright members to said beam members, said upright members being of such a length tosupport said coil 'in spaced relation from the bottom wall of said base member with the ends of said member resting on said flange.

2. The combination as claimed in claim 1 wherein said tank includes a cover member having a top wall and side walls extending therefrom, said side walls being adapted to be secured to said flange.

References'Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,433,701 10/1922 Cole 336-197 1,539,878 6/1925 Skinner 336197 2,085,080 6/1937 Brown 336-197 X 2,340,727 2/1944 Zelt a 3362l0 X 2,370,045 2/1944 Keto 336197 X 3,040,280 6/ 1962 Wiederkehr '336-l97 X 3,082,391 3/1963 Chiki M 3362l0 ROBERT K. SCI-IAEFER, Primary Examiner.

JOHN F. BURNS, Examiner.

THOMAS J, KOZMA, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN THE COMBINATION OF A TRANSFORMER COIL HAVING AN OPEN CENTER PORTION AND SUPPORT MEANS FOR SAID TRANSFORMER COIL, A TANK HAVING A BASE MEMBER COMPRISED OF A BOTTOM WALL AND SIDE WALLS EXTENDING THEREFROM DEFINING AN OPENING, A LATERALLY EXTENDING FLANGE SURROUNDING SAID OPENING, SAID COIL BEING POSITIONED IN SAID TANK, A BEAM MEMBER EXTENDING THROUGH SAID OPEN CENTER PORTION BEYOND THE SIDES OF SAID COIL, SAID BEAM MEMBER COMPRISING AN UPPER BAR, A LOWER BAR, AND ADJUSTABLE MEMBERS EXTENDING THEREBETWEEN, A PAIR OF UPRIGHT MEMBERS ADJACENT EACH END OF SAID BEAM MEMBER AND HAVING A LIFTING EYE SECURED THERETO, MEANS RELEASABLY CONNECTING SAID UPRIGHT MEMBERS TO SAID BEAM MEMBERS, SAID UPRIGHT MEMBERS BEING OF SUCH A LENGTH TO SUPPORT SAID COIL IN SPACED RELATION FROM THE BOTTOM WALL OF SAID BASE MEMBER WITH THE ENDS OF SAID MEMBER RESTING ON THE FLANGE. 